Page 6 - Barbecue News Magazine August 2020

bbq status
1776 to 2020:
How about the State
of the United States
of Barbecue?
Ardie Davis
aka Remus Powers BBQ Hall of Famer ardiedavis@kc.rr.com
Welcome to August 2020. Another 4th of July celebration with fireworks, burned hot dogs, sunburns, frosty beers and bug bites is over. Covid-19 is biting us with a vengeance. We wear masks. We social distance. We say “Dang! But I understand,” when we hear that another barbecue contest is canceled. We pray for a safe, effective vaccine or medication as soon as possible so millions of workers can return to the workplace, schools can reopen and the barbecue contest network can go full speed ahead in the “next normal.” Thanks to scientists, health care professionals, luck and true grit we may also get some baseball, soccer, volleyball, football and basketball virtually or onsite.
Meanwhile I’ve been thinking about how the United States of Barbecue today compares with the year when American colonists offi-
cially declared independ-
ence from Great Britain.
What a difference 244 years makes—or does it? Today’s America is still a new experiment in gover- nance of, by and for the people that is only eight generations removed from General George Washington and the other George, 38 year old King George III. When British citizens who colo- nized Native American land we now call the United States of America declared independence from their motherland and continued an eight year war that ended
Photo by A. Davis British rule over the colonies, were we much different
then than today?
Today’s USA has many more people from coast to coast, more/faster means of transportation, mass production and distribution of food/goods/services, faster more effi- cient communication networks plus scientific/medical advances and other amenities. United States barbecue has transitioned from Native American meat fires to so- cial events featuring open pit barbecue cooked by en- slaved people of color, post-Civil War open pit barbecue cooked by workers of all colors, to a multi-meatium na- tionwide mix of social events, backyard grilling and smoking, barbecue contests, packaged barbecue products and more than fourteenthousand barbecue restaurants.
BarbecueNews.com - 6
AUGUST 2020
The Late Smoky Hale
Compared to 1776, however, is
today’s barbecue better, the same, or worse? Time travelers could compare the two, but we’ll have to settle that rhetorical question with clashes of opinions between today’s purists and hi-tech adapters.
“We the people” have se- rious social, economic, environmental, spiritual, political, pandemic and other crises on our plate. Although today’s crises are not the focus of this column, they are not triv- ial. How we figure it all out, address it and change course when nec- essary will strengthen and preserve or weaken and stifle our momentum